A parliamentary question regarding rail development history in WA, with the Minister accusing the Liberal Party of misrepresenting historical facts about the northern suburbs railway line construction.

AnsweredQoN 533Legislative Assembly
Asked
24 August 2006
Portfolio
Planning and Infrastructure

QuestionView source ↗

RAIL DEVELOPMENT IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA
With eight train stations in my electorate of Perth, I am concerned that the Western Australian Liberals have shown great ignorance of the history of rail development in this state. Will the minister clarify this issue? Minister, I want the facts. Minister, I want the dates. Minister, I seek information on the state’s real rail history. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN

AnswerView source ↗

I thank the member, who is a very learned member who knows a lot about history. We are fascinated that the Prime Minister is rampaging around the country demanding that Australians get a better grasp of history and demanding, in particular, that we should know more about dates and facts. It is absolutely important that he should start with the Western Australian Liberals, because we have googled the Western Australian Liberal Party’s web site and found some truly extraordinary dates and facts that amount to a most extraordinary rewrite of history. We are going to educate members on the other side. Many of them are relatively new and are obviously not learned in Liberal Party history. Several members interjected. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Indeed, nor is their pronunciation all that good. Last night the Leader of the Opposition was unable to answer a few basic questions put to him about dates and facts, such as when and where the Liberal Party was formed. Obviously, there is a great information gap. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas : You were really busy working in your ministerial office. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : We were, and we can do more than one thing at a time. Very interestingly, I visited the Liberal Party web site and looked at the purported achievements of the second Court government. The web site makes great play of reminding people that Richard Court was the son of Sir Charles Court. We have a hereditary monarchy! The Liberal Party has picked out a list of six of the achievements of the Richard Court government. Surprisingly, the belltower was not one of them. The web site states that the second most important achievement of the Richard Court government was to build a new railway line into the northern suburbs of Perth. I will give members opposite some facts. In 1989, during a Labor government, Premier Dowding announced that the Labor government would build a railway to the northern suburbs. Nine months later he drove the first spike into the ground. In January 1990 the act was assented to and on 20 December 1992 the final track was laid. All that occurred under a Labor government. We know that the Liberals were disgraceful performers, but they do not have to try to grab our achievements. We want facts and dates. The fact is that not one centimetre of rail was laid by the Richard Court government. Its performance was so poor that the Liberal Party has grabbed our history and relabelled it as its own.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN replied: I thank the member, who is a very learned member who knows a lot about history. We are fascinated that the Prime Minister is rampaging around the country demanding that Australians get a better grasp of history and demanding, in particular, that we should know more about dates and facts. It is absolutely important that he should start with the Western Australian Liberals, because we have googled the Western Australian Liberal Party’s web site and found some truly extraordinary dates and facts that amount to a most extraordinary rewrite of history. We are going to educate members on the other side. Many of them are relatively new and are obviously not learned in Liberal Party history. Several members interjected. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Indeed, nor is their pronunciation all that good. Last night the Leader of the Opposition was unable to answer a few basic questions put to him about dates and facts, such as when and where the Liberal Party was formed. Obviously, there is a great information gap. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas : You were really busy working in your ministerial office. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : We were, and we can do more than one thing at a time. Very interestingly, I visited the Liberal Party web site and looked at the purported achievements of the second Court government. The web site makes great play of reminding people that Richard Court was the son of Sir Charles Court. We have a hereditary monarchy! The Liberal Party has picked out a list of six of the achievements of the Richard Court government. Surprisingly, the belltower was not one of them. The web site states that the second most important achievement of the Richard Court government was to build a new railway line into the northern suburbs of Perth. I will give members opposite some facts. In 1989, during a Labor government, Premier Dowding announced that the Labor government would build a railway to the northern suburbs. Nine months later he drove the first spike into the ground. In January 1990 the act was assented to and on 20 December 1992 the final track was laid. All that occurred under a Labor government. We know that the Liberals were disgraceful performers, but they do not have to try to grab our achievements. We want facts and dates. The fact is that not one centimetre of rail was laid by the Richard Court government. Its performance was so poor that the Liberal Party has grabbed our history and relabelled it as its own.
I thank the member, who is a very learned member who knows a lot about history. We are fascinated that the Prime Minister is rampaging around the country demanding that Australians get a better grasp of history and demanding, in particular, that we should know more about dates and facts. It is absolutely important that he should start with the Western Australian Liberals, because we have googled the Western Australian Liberal Party’s web site and found some truly extraordinary dates and facts that amount to a most extraordinary rewrite of history. We are going to educate members on the other side. Many of them are relatively new and are obviously not learned in Liberal Party history. Several members interjected. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Indeed, nor is their pronunciation all that good. Last night the Leader of the Opposition was unable to answer a few basic questions put to him about dates and facts, such as when and where the Liberal Party was formed. Obviously, there is a great information gap. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas : You were really busy working in your ministerial office. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : We were, and we can do more than one thing at a time. Very interestingly, I visited the Liberal Party web site and looked at the purported achievements of the second Court government. The web site makes great play of reminding people that Richard Court was the son of Sir Charles Court. We have a hereditary monarchy! The Liberal Party has picked out a list of six of the achievements of the Richard Court government. Surprisingly, the belltower was not one of them. The web site states that the second most important achievement of the Richard Court government was to build a new railway line into the northern suburbs of Perth. I will give members opposite some facts. In 1989, during a Labor government, Premier Dowding announced that the Labor government would build a railway to the northern suburbs. Nine months later he drove the first spike into the ground. In January 1990 the act was assented to and on 20 December 1992 the final track was laid. All that occurred under a Labor government. We know that the Liberals were disgraceful performers, but they do not have to try to grab our achievements. We want facts and dates. The fact is that not one centimetre of rail was laid by the Richard Court government. Its performance was so poor that the Liberal Party has grabbed our history and relabelled it as its own.
Several members interjected. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Indeed, nor is their pronunciation all that good. Last night the Leader of the Opposition was unable to answer a few basic questions put to him about dates and facts, such as when and where the Liberal Party was formed. Obviously, there is a great information gap. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas : You were really busy working in your ministerial office. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : We were, and we can do more than one thing at a time. Very interestingly, I visited the Liberal Party web site and looked at the purported achievements of the second Court government. The web site makes great play of reminding people that Richard Court was the son of Sir Charles Court. We have a hereditary monarchy! The Liberal Party has picked out a list of six of the achievements of the Richard Court government. Surprisingly, the belltower was not one of them. The web site states that the second most important achievement of the Richard Court government was to build a new railway line into the northern suburbs of Perth. I will give members opposite some facts. In 1989, during a Labor government, Premier Dowding announced that the Labor government would build a railway to the northern suburbs. Nine months later he drove the first spike into the ground. In January 1990 the act was assented to and on 20 December 1992 the final track was laid. All that occurred under a Labor government. We know that the Liberals were disgraceful performers, but they do not have to try to grab our achievements. We want facts and dates. The fact is that not one centimetre of rail was laid by the Richard Court government. Its performance was so poor that the Liberal Party has grabbed our history and relabelled it as its own.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Indeed, nor is their pronunciation all that good. Last night the Leader of the Opposition was unable to answer a few basic questions put to him about dates and facts, such as when and where the Liberal Party was formed. Obviously, there is a great information gap. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas : You were really busy working in your ministerial office. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : We were, and we can do more than one thing at a time. Very interestingly, I visited the Liberal Party web site and looked at the purported achievements of the second Court government. The web site makes great play of reminding people that Richard Court was the son of Sir Charles Court. We have a hereditary monarchy! The Liberal Party has picked out a list of six of the achievements of the Richard Court government. Surprisingly, the belltower was not one of them. The web site states that the second most important achievement of the Richard Court government was to build a new railway line into the northern suburbs of Perth. I will give members opposite some facts. In 1989, during a Labor government, Premier Dowding announced that the Labor government would build a railway to the northern suburbs. Nine months later he drove the first spike into the ground. In January 1990 the act was assented to and on 20 December 1992 the final track was laid. All that occurred under a Labor government. We know that the Liberals were disgraceful performers, but they do not have to try to grab our achievements. We want facts and dates. The fact is that not one centimetre of rail was laid by the Richard Court government. Its performance was so poor that the Liberal Party has grabbed our history and relabelled it as its own.
Ms K. Hodson-Thomas : You were really busy working in your ministerial office. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : We were, and we can do more than one thing at a time. Very interestingly, I visited the Liberal Party web site and looked at the purported achievements of the second Court government. The web site makes great play of reminding people that Richard Court was the son of Sir Charles Court. We have a hereditary monarchy! The Liberal Party has picked out a list of six of the achievements of the Richard Court government. Surprisingly, the belltower was not one of them. The web site states that the second most important achievement of the Richard Court government was to build a new railway line into the northern suburbs of Perth. I will give members opposite some facts. In 1989, during a Labor government, Premier Dowding announced that the Labor government would build a railway to the northern suburbs. Nine months later he drove the first spike into the ground. In January 1990 the act was assented to and on 20 December 1992 the final track was laid. All that occurred under a Labor government. We know that the Liberals were disgraceful performers, but they do not have to try to grab our achievements. We want facts and dates. The fact is that not one centimetre of rail was laid by the Richard Court government. Its performance was so poor that the Liberal Party has grabbed our history and relabelled it as its own.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : We were, and we can do more than one thing at a time. Very interestingly, I visited the Liberal Party web site and looked at the purported achievements of the second Court government. The web site makes great play of reminding people that Richard Court was the son of Sir Charles Court. We have a hereditary monarchy! The Liberal Party has picked out a list of six of the achievements of the Richard Court government. Surprisingly, the belltower was not one of them. The web site states that the second most important achievement of the Richard Court government was to build a new railway line into the northern suburbs of Perth. I will give members opposite some facts. In 1989, during a Labor government, Premier Dowding announced that the Labor government would build a railway to the northern suburbs. Nine months later he drove the first spike into the ground. In January 1990 the act was assented to and on 20 December 1992 the final track was laid. All that occurred under a Labor government. We know that the Liberals were disgraceful performers, but they do not have to try to grab our achievements. We want facts and dates. The fact is that not one centimetre of rail was laid by the Richard Court government. Its performance was so poor that the Liberal Party has grabbed our history and relabelled it as its own.

Explore WA Government Data

Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.

Explore more